Eras of Animation - The 2000's (Part 2)
2005: What the fuck happened? This is... a difficult year, but at least a lot happened. Let's start with Spongebob entering its fourth season and Family Guy returns (to its fourth season) to FOX after popular DVD sales. Both of these shows were previously cancelled, but because corporations wanted more and more money they kept them going. Also Family Guy got a spin-off in American Dad. American Dad isn't as good as Family Guy was, but it's a lot better than Family Guy currently is. Oh and speaking of Spongebob it may as well have gotten a spin-off too since Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island aired this year too. If you must know, that show is a just a rehash of Spongebob in every sense of the word (I have seen every joke in that show directly copy-pasted somewhere from Spongebob. The main character is a simple geometric shape and is annoying in-universe. He even inflates in one episode to solve a problem). As for other stuff I think is just pure bad, Johnny Test starts airing this year and would keep airing for about a decade. In its first season it was hand-drawn, but later on they used flash animation. This show was so cheap to produce that it could be guaranteed that anything they do would make a profit. Not to mention its other problems, like copy and paste stories or its never-ending use of the whip sound effect (how did I bring up neither of these in my actual review)? Go, Diego, Go was a spin-off of Dora the Explorer. It was unnecessary and stupid. Speaking of spin-offs, this year we got Loonatics Unleashed. I'll describe it like this: Loonatics Unleashed is that sitcom episode where the main character completely abandons their personality and begins acting awkward to fit in with the cool crowd. Every joke in the first episode rips off earlier Looney Tunes shorts in a desperate plea to remind you that this is still the Looney Tunes. Keep in mind that the Teen Titans were still running when this came out. It did not stand a chance. There was a CGI Bratz show... which had really creepy looking CGI. There was also the Buzz on Maggie, which was almost exactly the same as the other copy and paste sitcoms that sunk the Disney Channel's reputation. And finally, there was My Gym Partner's a Monkey, which was another ren and stimpy rip-off. In one episode one of the main-characters literally spends the whole 11 minutes eating bat guano. But that being said, this year we did have some good stuff. And I mean really good stuff. We got Avatar: The Last Airbender which is my second favorite animated show of all time. I suppose that this show's existence shouldn't really surprise me as much as it does with all of the crap around here. But like I said before, we were still getting a lot of shows with more anime influence. This year we got American Dragon Jake Long and the Life and Times of Juniper Lee. I really like the former, but unfortunately never got to see much of the later. Other than that came Camp Lazlo, which wasn't amazing but it was good. It had one of those classic cartoon feels and it was much closer to capturing the charm of Spongebob than say... Coconut Fred. This was a good year for adult animation though. Ignoring 12 Oz. Mouse (which actually came out this year, my mistake) we got Robot Chicken, which is still airing 10 years later. We've got Moral Orel, which is how you properly do a parody of "wholesome life" Mr. Pickles. And finally there's the Boondocks, which was heavily on point. And once again there was American Dad, which again was alright. Movies are another story. Disney released Chicken Little and I absolutely hate this movie. You can see my review if you want my full thoughts on it. By the way, it was one of their biggest financial successes since Dinosaur. I guess the CGI is what the audiences wanted. Odd because Dreamworks released the stop-motion Curse of the Were-Rabbit (with Aardman Animation), the best movie of this year. It's probably the best movie released this year. Oh, and Dreamworks also released Madagascar, which was... okay. Like Blue Sky Studio's Robots. Or Corpse Bride, which felt like it was trying way too hard to recapture the magic of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Valiant was also okay. Honestly the only other movie above C-level here was Hoodwinked, a movie that wasn't done by any of the major animation studios. 2006: We've got a lot to talk about it, and not all of it is good. I don't even know where to start. Let's try the good stuff. Class of 3000, which I really like. It's a highly diverse show with an entertaining batch of characters and songs written by Andre 3000. It didn't last long for various reasons, and since they kind of conflict. Either Andre 3000 was sued by Timothy McGee, the show was too expensive to produce, or it was a victim of a writer's strike. Either way it's particularly hard to find episodes for nowadays. On the same level is the Replacements: good show, didn't last long, impossible to find episodes for. Both Metalocalypse and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse start airing this year and I keep getting requests for admirables on both of these shows. And now the bad stuff. Well let's start with Kappa Mikey. I can't find the commercial anywhere so I can't prove it, but I do remember commercials calling this show an American anime and saying "the best thing that happened to Japanese animation is that it came to America" or something along those lines. Shorty McShorts' Shorts tried and failed to replicate the success of What a Cartoon Show and Oh Yeah! Cartoons. There was Shaggy & Scooby Doo Get a Clue which may be the worst Scooby Doo spin-off in history. If not, it definitely has the worst theme song in history. And finally there's Squirrel Boy. Did you ever want to see Ed, Edd n Eddy without Double D, without any charm, and the animation style of the Cramp Twins? Then Squirrel Boy is the show for you. There's also Mr. Meaty if you want to count it as a cartoon (I don't). 4Kids had Viva Pinata. Basically Microsoft wanted to compete with Pokemon so they got Rare to make this game and a television spin-off to go hand-in-hand. Unfortunately they kind of missed the point. I REALLY like the video game Viva Pinata, but it had a very cartoonish style that wasn't very appealing to adults and game play (including a tutorial that LIES TO YOU) that was too complex for kids. This is where the spin-off should have kicked in. The Pokemon anime actually teaches kids how to play Pokemon. It tells them the mechanics, what's weak or strong against what, what Pokemon can be caught in what areas, etc. The Viva Pinata cartoon had nothing to do with the video game. I don't know if this is a flaw or anything, but it's something that the video game really could have used to turn it into an amazing franchise. Either way, it's a lot better than their other products. I would have talked about this sooner if I had done more research, but in 2004 4kids dubbed One Piece. Basically they took an anime for adults and cut it to make it "appropriate for kids" after the manga to the series was already widely available in the United States. I don't like 4kids. It's not a good year for movies. For convenience sake, I'll go alphabetical. There's the Ant Bully, a justly forgotten piece of mediocrity. Barnyard is a movie that I'm kind of biased against. Home on the Range came out two years ago, I didn't really want another one. The movie is okay except for the one small fact that male cattle don't have fucking utters. You've got a main character who has four penises flapping around in the breeze. Cars should be called Boats because it's just above C-Level. Huh-huh-huh. Doogal or the Magic Roundabout has two versions. Hint, hint, I'll talk about this one in a future review. Dreamworks' Flushed Away was okay. Happy Feet had a really good first half, but a really messy second half when it became blatant with an out-of-nowhere moral. There's Monster House, which was decent. And Open Season which I remember nothing about. There's Over the Hedge, which I remember being absurdly bland. And finally there was the Wild. Depending on your region, this is in the Disney animated canon instead of Dinosaur... which is odd because The Wild is worse. It's just a cheap Madagascar rip-off. The worst movie this year? Oh simple, Cartoon Network's suicide note: Re-Animated. The best movies this year aren't American. If you want a really good animated movie from 2006, you're going to have to watch Paprika or Tales from Earthsea. 2007: In the final stretch things have gotten really, really bad. This year only has three good new cartoons: El Tigre, Phineas and Ferb, and Chowder. And here's the thing: Chowder is merely okay. El Tigre and Phineas and Ferb were really good and they had a distinctive charm. Now let's talk about the ocean of badness. Wayside isn't awful, but the books that it was based on were insanely creative and they didn't want to use that gold platter they were handed and just came out kind of mediocre. Back at the Barnyard gave out protagonist with four penises flapping in the breeze the catch phrase "milk me." Tak and the Power of Juju has been forgotten for good reason. The Land Before Time had a spin-off cartoon. I think they were on like sequel ten at this point, so at least it was a logical step. Finally there was Out of Jimmy's Head. People don't hate this thing because it was live action. They hated it because it was stupid. Like Drawn Together it falls under the trap believe that "because we're homaging something we can be cliche and rip people off." The premise of the story is that this kid had a near-fatal accident and required a brain transplant. That transplant came from a Walt Disney expy because it was frozen in a theme park ride, but it's okay because they were able to save Jimmy's personality gland. And now he has hallucinations constantly because that's not insulting to Walt Disney at all. In 2007 there was this writer's strike. If you want to know why this era seems to have such a residual of badness, the writer's strike may be where you should start looking. It is long and complicated and I don't have time to go through it in detail here. Here's a place to start for the curious: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%…. Basically, with internet downloads of this era companies were making a lot more money and as such the employees wanted a larger cut. You want to know why many shows in this period ended up seemingly creatively bankrupt? Well, when the professional writers weren't writing... things kind of fell apart. Many of the biggest shows were affected as well, like pretty much all of Fox's animated block. This wasn't just an animation thing, it affected all television across all genres. But since this is an animation retrospective, we're talking about that. Some shows like Family Guy and the Simpsons had shortened seasons. Some shows like Spongebob had writers flat out fired. That's kind of depressing, let's look at movies. For reference, Atlantis SquarePantis was released this year. (Oh my god, it all makes sense now). Dreamworks releases Bee Movie, which is an aptly named title in more ways than one. Image Movers Digital released their version of Beowulf. Tell me Robert Zemeckis, did we really need a scene where the hero gets naked to find Grendel? I don't remember that being in the actual story. Are you really trying to make people horny for a creepy motion capture body? Then there's Happily N'Ever After. That's another future review definitely. That movie is awful. Disney made Meet the Robinsons this year, a movie I find highly underrated. Pixar released Ratatouille, which is my favorite Pixar movie. Not to mention that we actually got a 2D movie, the Simpsons Movie. But beyond those three movies, you won't find much. You'll find the animated Ten Commandments and immediately regret that decision. You'll find Shrek the Third, and not much else. 2008: It's... not a good year. We've got our first Ben 10 spin-off because the Networks are creatively bankrupt. We've got the Mighty B because the Networks are creatively bankrupt (it's Spongebob light). We've got Rugrats Pre-School Daze because the Networks are creatively bankrupt. We've got the Penguins of Madagascar, another spin-off because the Networks are creatively bankrupt (it's okay, but I don't think that it was necessary for Madagascar to get a spin-off). Disney makes shorts films out of Cars because the Networks are creatively bankrupt. God, I don't like Flapjack but it's pretty much the only thing that came out this year with any sense of creativity. Also, because this was a genius idea, Toonami gets cancelled. Also, Avatar, the original Ben 10, and Codename Kids Next Door all end (ending the original Cartoon Cartoons). Did we get anything good? Well, we got the Mr. Men show... which was interesting at least. I mean, it's more amusing than anything else, but at least it's SOMETHING. We also got Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which isn't as good as Batman: The Animated Series. Let's talk about movies because they don't fare much better. The best movie this year is Wall-E. It's highly rated and made a lot of money. Unfortunately for some reason, it's been the least profitable Pixar movie. Everything else? Disney releases Bolt, an okay movie. Oh and the cheapquels are dead. Now we've got our first Tinker Bell movie which I haven't seen) The second best movie this year is Kung Fu Panda, which was Dreamworks' first real step to finding an identity (a good one). Now that that's out of the way. Let's talk about the crap. Delgo comes out this year, and it's fucking HORRIBLE. Fly Me to the Moon comes out this year, and it's fucking HORRIBLE. A Fox's Tale comes out this year, and it's fucking HORRIBLE. Yes, I know that those last two are from different countries, but it's just... ugh. However, we did get an independent animated film Sita Sings the Blues, which has gotten really good reviews. I have not seen it myself, but it sounds like something that animation fans should check out. 2009: We're almost done here. Let's finish this. This is bad. This is really, really, really bad. First of all, Pixel Pinkie may have aired this year in Australia. (Some sources tell me it aired in 2008). It wasn't aired in America, but I want to bring it up to show how low flash animation had sunk by this point. Nick at Nite gets Glenn Martin, which runs right after Spongebob spurring many complaints of parents who had their children seeing a dog's swollen anus. Nickelodeon itself? Well, it gets Fanboy and Chum Chum. Fox gets two new shows: The Cleveland Show and Sit Down, Shut Up. The Cleveland Show is one of the most dull shows I've ever seen. I haven't seen the other one, but it only lasted 13 episodes before it was cancelled due to poor ratings. Here's the thing about FOX: they can't cancel the Simpsons or Family Guy. They've tried many times to give them a suitable replacement but their audience doesn't want to see anything else so it quickly crashes and burns. Let's talk about Cartoon Network because this is fucking embarrassing. How many new cartoons did this channel get? 0. ZERO. NONE. NOTTA. ZIP. THE Cartoon Network decided that cartoons were passe and not worth anyone's time. Their own commercials announced this. Instead of any new cartoons, Cartoon Network gave us SEVEN live action series. Why? To compete with Nickelodeon? They didn't have much at this point either! I thought that 2005 may have been one of the worst years for television animation, but no it looks like 2009 takes the cake. Not one of these shows are worth watching, and the stuff still around from previous years like Johnny Test or Squirrel Boy or Spongebob aren't helping matters. Thank heavens that movies began picking things up or this would have been an easy shoe-in for the worst year in animation history. Pixar releases Up which is really good and clever. Disney releases The Princess and the Frog, which many people say is the start of the second Disney Renaissance (they're not wrong). Coraline comes out and it's amazing in every way, shape, and form. There's also the Fantastic Mr. Fox which I haven't seen, but hear is AMAZING. On the same level, there's also Mary & Max. Even the weaker stuff isn't all that bad. Monsters Vs. Aliens? It's okay. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs? Pretty good. So we end with one of the worst years in animation television history and one of the best years in animation movie history (it's pretty much the only year when both Disney and Pixar released a masterpiece simultaneously). As for the decade as a whole, it's pretty bad. There's some stuff that's really good, but a lot of it... well doesn't exist. The worst years of this decade have nothing happening. I mean, if Cartoon Network was trying in 2009 there would be more to talk about, even if their programming was worse. With the worst parts of this decade there just isn't much to talk about. Anyway, as for this decade in review: * Western cartoons get a lot more of an anime influence with ongoing stories and a higher focus on action. * CGI movies almost completely take over 2D Animation, largely because they're more profitable. * Flash animation becomes common place. * The internet allows increased access to buying and spreading the message about cartoons. Before the internet, we had to buy box set DVD's to get that one specific episode. * I didn't get to talk about it, but the internet allowed people to communicate and make their own cartoons. Internet animation will be its own retrospective. * People started using motion capture... to mixed results. * Live action films with CGI cartoons became popular... to terrible results. * Cartoon Network started shoving in live action stuff. So did Adult Swim by the way (to which they say that they're separate from Cartoon Network. Later on they end up saying that they are a part of Cartoon Network which bugs me). * Adult Cartoons largely want to rip off South Park. * Franchises are milked for all they're worth. * Television-based animated films on the big screen have a spark here or there, but they kind of die out. Category:Miscellaneous